Karstens sent me a check of the extra money "Riding Fixed" generated. I have donated the full amount to the Red Cross Tsunami Fund (minus a few bucks for a nice bottle of wine).

When you're out on your bike today, or just looking at it from across the room, realize that in some small way your machine helped make the life of one in hardship just a little better. Nothing huge, nothing that's going to win a Nobel Prize, but to all those that contributed, you'll sleep good tonight, and in the end, empathy and realizing the importance of simple pleasures is one of the secrets of happiness in life.

Karstens also sent an "unearthed" box of Riding Fixed. These will be made available in the near future. I can't do it now because I'm in the middle of a move and I have no idea where I packed them.

nice, mayo & wk...thanks

Mayo did all the work: I merely domistiqued the print job and distro. The agreement in the beggining, (before I had his permission perhaps) was that profit would go to the cause of his choice. Between my trip to South America, and a few other things, I "sat" on the money for a few months until Mayo gently reminded me to check on where we stood... My apologies for that. My wife found a stack of extra copies too in a box, apparently set to go to Mayo for his use.

All the contreversy about language, writing and riding styles aside: the forum did something as a whole. And for those of you with tenure here, we helped Lucklust do an Aids Charity ride. We get together and do rides together as well. Hell, we even document our lives via blog.

The point being that for all our floundering, talking about which bag is best (chrome of course), trash talking fads, looks, parts, etc... we can do things to help others and have a decent ****ing time doing it.
So, what do we take for this lesson? We can "Hoist that Rag" and do things together to help others.

I vote we do that from time to time. Pick a cause, do something to raise money for it, and then donate.

Cheers! Count me in.

[165] and a couple others also helped send some basic supplies to a few enlisted folks in Iraq. I know doing such a thing is far less palatable to many of you, but politics aside, they could use a fresh bar of soap as much as the next guy. I really don't want to get into a foreign policy debate with this post....but if you think you missed your chance to help these particular GIs--who happen to have ties to one our forum-mates--maybe you should PM [165] and see if he is planning any further efforts.

Here's a random thought.

We could come up with a twice a year cause.

Do a "stupid" contest to rasie money for it, or gather @#$#@ for it.

Idea's for contest: Honor Alley Cats: Skid contest: distance races: Track stand stuff. Throw money in a pot, one person wins a portion of the pot, the rest going towards the cause-de-jour of the moment.

Stuff collection: collect "stuff" for people in need: soldiers in Iraq, poor kids in Sumatra, what ever. Pictures of us hauling it in bags.

Spoke Card design: Entry fee, winner gets a small prize, money goes towards cause.

Have a few centeral POC's for collection and distribution of the "goods".


Just an idea I thought I'd throw out there.

Seems like a lot of work. Instead people can do as they've been doing: put out the word whenever they get caught up in a particular cause. People who dig the idea will jump onboard.

Why make it harder than it has to be? Selecting two causes a year that will capture the enthusiasm of everyone with a philanthropic bone in their body? Seems sketchy.

There are people who will do something good with out prompting. Some people need a little incentive, something to make it fun, something to attract them to it. I'm not making it harder than it has to be, I'm trying to get more out of something than perhaps could normally be done.

It's just an idea. And if it sucks, well, just say it sucks.

I'd say the same about you.

Alls I'm saying is that I'm skeptical. Seems like the ad-hoc thing has been doing ok, why formalize. But whichever, it's all good.